To promote open access for research, Syracuse University Libraries has dedicated this week to be a series of presentations influenced by this idea.

Open Access Week is an event that serves to educate about the importance of open access, the idea that all research should be accessible online following its publication. The event is public to students and faculty and is running through Thursday, said Yuan Li, scholarly communication librarian, in an email.

Li said the week includes a series of presentations and a daily information table where those interested can ask questions. Undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to attend the events and talk to the librarians during the week about what open access means, she said.

Open Access Week began on Monday with a presentation by Jeffrey Beall, the author of “Beall’s List of Predatory, Open Access Publishers.” Beall talked about how to differentiate between legitimate and predatory open access journals, she said.

Li said Open Access Week will also hold a presentation on Tuesday titled, “Open Access: What’s In It for Authors?” The presentation will include a discussion by faculty panelists about their perspective on and experiences with making their work openly accessible.

On Wednesday, SU professors Albrecht Diem and Chris Forster will speak at the “Issues in Digital Scholarship” forum.

Forster said in an email he will talk about digital scholarship and digital projects from two perspectives. Forster created open digital content by collecting a series of poems and posting them online for all users to see. He will also discuss his use of open digital content as a way to research the history of obscenity in literature.

Still, Forster said he believes open access poses some potential issues. In terms of research funding, he said scholarly journals have traditionally been paid through subscriptions. On the Internet, scholarly journals can be accessed for free.

Posting online requires humanities scholars to become familiar with the tools and methods that are traditionally used in social sciences, Forster said. He added that these methods are usually traced to statistics or computer science. He said he feels this is a positive factor of open online information.

Open Access Day was created by the Students for Free Culture in an attempt to draw attention to their search for greater public availability of academic resources, journals, artwork, music and more, Li said. She said it was also created to advocate for the tax payer’s right to access federally funded research.

Published on October 22, 2013 at 1:25 am